Balance in Teaching Reading

September 16, 2024

I’ve had several friends tell me that they have poured over my homeschool posts and re-read them many times. I’m honored for such attention to the posts, but I struggle wondering if I am leading others in the right direction. As a teacher, I change and morph, adapting to different students and maturing in my own didactic skills, and I humbly realize that not every decision I make as a teacher is the best.

Teaching reading is scary, and oh, how much I have learned about teaching reading in my homeschooling journey. Today I’d like to share some mistakes I have made, what I’m doing to fix those errors, and what I’m doing differently with my next student.

When I began the homeschool journey, I planned on using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise (co-author of the authoritative The Well-Trained Mind). As I continued studying and researching, I came across Wanda Sanseri’s Spell to Write and Read program. This program intrigued me like none other, and all Mrs. Sanseri’s ideas resonated with me, and in my mind all her ideas worked soundly.

Spell to Write and Read is truly one of the most robust and phonetically pure programs I have ever come across, yet it just wasn’t working how I wanted it to with my oldest. We spent so much time on spelling that we were not progressing quickly into confident reading. I told my husband, “This is a hard program, but the results are worth it.” Fast forward a few weeks, and I complained to my husband that we just weren’t making noticeable progress in reading. He wisely looked at me and said, “Well, you said yourself it was a hard program.” Blink. Blink. A lightbulb turned on in my dim brain.

That was a turning moment for me as I began to realize that change needed to happen for my oldest to quickly move into confident reading. I adore Spell to Write and Read (and plan to use it again later on), but I have set aside that curriculum (and my pride) for a much more doable curriculum, The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. We have rapidly worked our way through lessons, sometimes completing as many as 4 in a day.

I’ve grown a little older and wiser, and am taking a different approach with my next student down. I’m ignoring some advice, even from knowledgeable sources, such as

--Don’t teach your children rhyming words or nursery rhymes.

--Don’t teach your children the names of the letters, ONLY teach the letter sounds.

--Never ever “sound out a word” such as /k/ /a/ /t/ to spell cat. This “advice” from a well-known publisher particularly troubled me.

--Don’t teach students songs to help with reading.

--Don’t use alphabet magnets.

I hope some of these definitive statements made you raise an eyebrow. They should have. I’m learning to watch out for polarizing advice such as “never do this” or “only teach this way.” I’m learning to teach my child, not just a program, and adapt to her needs.

All this said, with my next student, we are incorporating everything good and helpful! We ARE

--learning our letter names AND their associated sounds

--singing the alphabet song

--reading alphabet books and easy books with rhymes

--playing with magnetic letters—A LOT!!!

--spelling out easy words such as “bad” with magnets and sounding out the word together

--singing little ditties that I wrote to help us learn our phonics

One of the most important lessons I have learned in homeschooling is the importance of teaching to my student, not just rigidly teaching from a curriculum. What are his or her specific needs? How can I best help my student? Is a curriculum just not clicking for my student? How can I adapt? How can my student adapt? Do we just need to continue even though the curriculum is difficult? Every curriculum has its challenging spots, and we must not shy away from difficulty.

Changing curriculum should be carefully calculated, not a choice made on a whim because something was hard. Yet to best meet the needs of my students, I have to have the wisdom and discernment to see past the book in front of my face and look down the channels of time and know what my students need for life.

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God is ever faithful, and He is my helper. He has been so gracious to lead me and even let me fall flat on my face when I needed humbling. God will give grace and wisdom when I humbly seek Him in my homeschooling journey!

-Ashley

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Personal Disclosure

As the author of Ashley Qurollo Blog, all opinions are my own. Any possible applications are universal in nature, not directed at any one individual or people group. My sincere desire is to help others by sharing what I am learning. Nothing stated on this blog is ever intended to hurt others. Ashley Qurollo, owner of Ashley Qurollo Blog and Website, is not held liable in any way for any application of the ideas and thoughts stated here.